PLEASE READ THIS: A note on productive posting for our newer people.

The great news is that the forum has a record number of members and the rate of posts has been pretty high in recent weeks! The not so good news is that I’m finding I have to do a lot of deleting and reminding of forum rules.

All posters should be 100% familiar with them (they are pretty simple) and ensure all posts comply with them. They are non-negotiable and this is how we do things here.

The second thing is that the whole point of the forum is to share information. I’d therefore appreciate it if the newer members could reign in “information free” posts.

You can use the private message function for private chatter (see the rules). Also be sure that your posts add something to the discussion and you are not “talking for the sake of talking”.

1 – Is your post a question aimed at clarifying the views expressed in another post?

These are great as they ensure discussions get opened up and the unclear is made clear. This is also a great way for the “less experienced” to really help ensure good quality information is shared. Some people are reluctant to post their own views, but everyone can ask questions and it really helps.

2 – Is your post a statement of your own views COMPLETE an explanation of why you hold those views and believe them to be true?

We love these! Statements of viewpoint without an explanation of that viewpoint are not good though as they are effectively nothing more than a personal view and are information free. “I think kata is a good way to train BECAUSE ….” is great. “I think kata is a good way to train” end of statement is poor and such posts will be deleted.

3 – Is your post a statement of an alternative position COMPLETE with an explanation of your view and why you hold another view to be invalid or not as valid?

As above. Saying “I disagree full stop” is nothing more than personal opinion and hence irrelevant to all but you. “I disagree BECAUSE …” is great because it shares information and is what the forum is all about.

4 – Have you read the full thread before posting? Or are you leaping in midstream without an understating of where the tread has already gone?

There’s been a lot of “leaping in” recently and it leads to people having to say the same things again and “looped threads”. I have no option but to delete such posts in order to keep the information posted here clear, accessible and usable to the sites thousands of visitors.

It’s really easy to do, makes your posts much clearer, and saves me having to tidy up posts that quoted in a “unofficial way”.

6 – Remember that this site automatically line spaces paragraphs.

Hitting return twice will result in a double space and I need to edit those out to stop the forum looking a mess. If you are cutting and pasting your responses from a word document etc, be sure to take this in to account and edit your own posts if they typeset incorrectly. Thanks!

I want as many people to contribute as possible … the key word though being “contribute”. This is not a “shout from your soap box” kind of forum. All posts need to add something to the discussion and it would help me a lot if people could think about the above points in order to ensure good quality discussions and avoid me having to “clean up”. Thanks!